


An Old Man's Folly

by AceQueenKing



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Hook-Up, Partying, Protective Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 06:56:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11731875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceQueenKing/pseuds/AceQueenKing
Summary: Harry thinks Sara is too young to be interested in him.Sara doesn't agree.





	An Old Man's Folly

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StarGazerGamer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarGazerGamer/gifts).



Harry was an old man, and like most old men, he spent the entirety of the Victory over Kett day party next to the punch bowl.

It had at least been spiked, thanks to the Asari scientist. He'd watched her pull in half a bottle of what was certainly now a rare, Milky Way antique—Serrice Iced Brandy. He said nothing as she poured it into the bowl, and in gratitude, she shot him a wink. He'd mentioned it to Sara, who'd clapped her hands together and announced the punch had been spiked.

And then the stampede had started. His conscience clear, Harry was a part of it. He grabbed a large cup and took an eager sip, anxious for it to blunt some of the nerves. It was sweet, far too sweet, but then Sara had held out her hand and he'd poured her a cup and she'd smiled at him like he was twenty years younger than he was. And that, in the end, was enough to make him make him stand by the punch bowl for the rest of the night like a damned idiot just in case she came back and decided she wanted more.

At the moment, she was dancing; he watched her as she moved on the floor. Alec Ryder's daughter had a grace her father did not possess, moving on the dance floor like fluid and light. Her feet moved with an elegant purpose; to the left, to the right. She dipped low, and he caught the attractive glow of her backside underneath the neon ball someone had dragged all the way from the Milky Way. When Vetra and the Krogan - Drack? - had rigged it up, he'd thought it was ridiculous.

Now, he was just thankful someone had thought of it.

There was a cloying taste on his tongue from the alcohol. He'd had, perhaps, more than he should, but the alcohol dulled the pain of watching the woman who was far too young for him enjoy her far-too-fun turn on the dance floor. He found her enchanting, but so did everyone else, and he wasn't surprised when Lexi had sent him a letter saying that half the ship wanted to sleep with her and that Lexi was getting tired of the hormones. She was obviously out of his league, which was fine, and he should be content with just watching her from afar. It was scandalous enough, he thought; in the milky way, he wouldn't have even thought of acting on it.

And yet. They were no longer in the milky way, and Sara had spent no small amount of the dance winking at him.

She did it again, catching his stare and coming over. She was a little breathless, though not as much as she had been when he’d heard what SAM had done to her on that ship. That made his chest tighten just thinking about it.

“What’s wrong?” She asked. She grinned at him as he stared at her, her eyes so vivacious, so _alive_ it was hard to forget that she had been technically dead not twenty-four hours prior.

She leaned toward him, laughing. “ _Adhi_ got your tongue, doc?”

“You could have died,” he blurted out, and she stopped laughing instantly. He winced. If he’d had anything in the cards before, he certainly didn’t now.

“Still thinking about that, huh?” She ran a hand through her hair but looked away. He knew her well enough to know this meant she was uncomfortable. She stared out toward Scott, still boogieing away with their alcohol-smuggling Asari friend, and he wondered if she was thinking about all the people she loved who hadn’t made it to Andromeda.

“I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said, shaking his head. “I know you didn’t have a choice, but as a physician, there’s so much that I can’t stop thinking might have happened to you. Even if it didn’t...There’s nothing I could do to keep it from happening again, and that scares the _ever loving piss_ out of me.”

She looked back at him, wide eyes wider and a little bit startled. “No offense doc, but I didn’t know you cared.”

“I care more than you know,” he said before he could stop himself. _In vino veritas_ , he thought. _In wine, truth._ Truth truer than even the Roman’s knew.

“I care about you, too,” she said, laughing again, but this time with a nervous undercurrent to it. She grabbed his hand and squeezed tightly. He held onto it and they stayed together for a moment; Scott looked toward them and raised his eyebrows, but Sara just held up her drink and he turned back to his scientist.

Harry supposed that was a code between them. He recalled distantly that twins frequently made their own languages; maybe one day he’d ask. For now, he was relieved Scott’s protective younger brother instincts had been soothed by Ryder’s raised glass.

“When you say you care for me...” Ryder looked back at him, still fidgetting with her ponytail. “Do you mean you _like_ me, or that you care for me as a patient?”

He stood stock still and stared at her for a moment, her bright eyes so clearly hoping for something that even in his most wild dreams he could not imagine giving her. He swallowed, then reached out a hand, cupping her face.

She leaned in.

He didn’t waste time, pressing his lips to hers. Her arms wrapped around his head and he groaned. For a moment, the loud noise of the party, the smell and sight of victory and sweat and writhing, chaotic bodies, all faded away as he focused on nothing but the woman before him.

“Hey,” Vetra said, clapping them both on a back. “You guys want a room?” She pressed a key to his hand, and Harry didn’t think too much about where she’d appropriated it from. Vetra, no doubt, had traded someone for it.

“Think we should take her up on it?” Ryder asked, softly, unusually quiet. Her eyes were full of hope and he could only hope she wouldn't be disappointed.

“Lead the way,” he said and pressed the key into her hands.

 


End file.
